Rain of Blood
by Serena10
Summary: (previously known as Willowy Touch) When the portal between dimensions opened in season 5, Willow got sucked up into it. Where did she land? *Crossover with Rurouni Kenshin*
1. Prologue

Prologue  
  
"Oh God!" Willow exclaimed.  
  
Everyone looked up. The portal was opening, Dawn's blood pooring from the cuts. Spike had just fallen from the tower and Buffy was running up the stairs. Giles had disappeared a few moments ago in search of Ben. Only Willow, Tara, Xander and Anya were left at the base of the tower, near the stairs and the bunch of crazy people trying to hit them unsuccessfully.  
  
A roar pierced the night. A dragon flew out of the portal. They had to close it soon, but it would mean Dawn's death. The universes were mixing up. In other words, very bad thing.  
  
Anya screamed. A beam of energy had just flew out of the vortex and hit the pavement not five meters away from her and Xander. The cement cracked and bits of stone flew in the air. Willow covered hers and Tara's face with her arm.  
  
The redhead looked up. Spike was starting to stir, but he wasn't in condition to escape the tumbling rocks. She jumped on her feet and ran to the vampire, helping him up and out of the way. She pushed him in front of her.  
  
She didn't have time to understand why she was bathed in light.  
  
At Tara's scream, the Scoobies looked up in time to see a beam of energy hit Willow and suck her up in the portal. Spike held the blond witch before she ran out there and get herself killed.  
  
The Slayer jumped. The portal closed itself. 


	2. Rain of Blood

For those of you who don't know what in hell Rurouni Kenshin is, I'm only telling you this : you have to read the mangas and see the series. It's fantastic! But even if you don't know what it is, you should be able to understand the story. I'm writting it while taking in consideration that some of you might not know Himura Kenshin and co.  
  
Part 1 : Rain of Blood  
  
Willow groaned. Her head was throbbing and a bright light was hurting her eyes. She put her hand in front of them, hoping to hide the green orbs from the evil light. She slowly sat up and waited for the dizziness to pass before looking around her. She was in some kind of forest and she had apparently slept outside. The 'evil' light was, in fact, the sun.  
  
Leaning on a tree for support, the redhead slowly stood up on shaking legs. "What am I doing in a forest?" she asked herself.  
  
Between the trees, she could see some kind of habitation. Becoming more and more steady on her feet, she started walking toward the habitation in hope of finding a phone. Then, she could get someone to pick her up back home. But she still didn't know how she's ended up in a forest. The last thing she remembered was Tara's scream and a bright light surrounding her. [What in hell happened?!]  
  
Willow blinked. What she took for a lone habitation was in fact the first building of a town... a japanese town from the last century. "What the?" She looked around her, searching for the hidden camera, but they were none. "Maybe I was drugged? Yes, that's got to be it. I'm seeing things, an hallucination resulted from the misuse of drugs."  
  
Apparently happy with her deduction, she steadily walked to the town. "Hallucination, Will. Remember, it's just an hallucination. This is in fact Sunnydale and some kind of drugs makes you see it as a nineteenth century japanese town," she told herself.  
  
Near the first house, she saw an old man sitting outside. She ran to him. He was wearing a kimono, making Willow more and more uncomfortable. "Excuse me? Could you tell me what year is this and what the name of that town is?"  
  
The man blinked.  
  
"O-kay. Obviously not understanding english." She sighed. [I do know Japanese. I just haven't been practicing for two years. I'm a bit rusty.] She cleared her throat. (NOTE: from now on, and until I say otherwise, Willow is speaking japanese.) "Excuse me, but could you tell me what year this is and the name of this town?"  
  
"Well, you are in Kyoto, dear girl. I do not know how come you don't know the year, but if I must tell you, we are in 1864. Where do you come from to wear such strange clothes?"  
  
"Um, America," she said in a dull voice. "Thank you, sir." Dazed, she walked further in town. [1864. Kyoto. I'm in *frigging* Japan in the middle of the 19th century!]  
  
Willow was oblivious to everything around her, including the sun quickly setting and the cold wind settling in. "Okay, Willow. You have to control yourself. Japan. 19th century. Tokugawa. Okay. Definitly *not* good. Why did I have to land in the middle of the Meiji restoration? I'm stuck in a foreign country more than one hundred years before my time in the middle of a war. Just great. And it's raining!"  
  
Willow looked up when she heard footsteps approaching. Her eyes widened when she saw four huge men walking her way, apparently half drunk. [They look exactly like jocks. This is bad news.] She gulped when one of them seemed to notice her presence.  
  
"Oh, a pretty young thing. Is that body to sell?" He leered at her and she suddenly felt naked. "Not very talkative, uh? That's alright. I don't mind." He smirked and his friends laughed like. well, drunk men.  
  
The redhead held her chin high and stared straight into his eyes. "Sorry, but this body is not to sell." She turned on her heels and walked quickly in the other direction, praying lady luck that they would leave her alone. She felt a hand on her shoulder. [Nope. Not that lucky.]  
  
Willow quickly spunned around and used a move she'd seen Buffy use many times, instantly breaking the man's nose. He yelled in pain and she took that moment to run. She heard them broke into a run behind her and she forced her body to move faster. "Lets hope I can lose them," she whispered to herself, already panting.  
  
She was so absorbed by her thoughts that she didn't hear the sound of swords clashing together until she fell upon the battle itself. She stopped dead in her track. Three men wearing light blue kimonos were fighting with a young man of her age with the same red hair pulled in a ponytail, dressed in dark blue and grey. And the three men in light blue suits were fighting for their lives.  
  
Unable to move, Willow watched them fight. It was like a deadly dance. She looked with morbid fascination as the water from the rain turned red on the ground. Blood. Lots of it.  
  
She suddenly realized that the three guys in blue were dead, their broken bodies laying in pools of blood. She looked up and her gaze fell on a pair of deadly grey eyes. She stopped moving. He was like a predator watching his prey and she didn't like it. In fact, she hated it, but she knew never to run in front of a predator. [Fuck this, Will! It isn't discovery chanel but a manslayer looking at an unwanted spectator!]  
  
She didn't take time to think of it twice. She broke into a run from the way she came. and found herself facing the four drunk men. She backed slowly, glancing back to see the red haired man. He hadn't move one little bit. [He's waiting to see what's going to happen,] she realized. The men in front of her didn't seem to notice the manslayer standing quietly not ten meters away.  
  
"Come on, sweets. I'm waiting for you," the leader said, the others laughing wildly behind him.  
  
Blood. Willow was splashed by some of it and it contrasted against her pale skin. She first saw three of the drunk men run away in fright. Then she saw the leader looking at her strangely. He would have been just a weird man if it hadn't been for the sword piercing his neck.  
  
She felt the bile rose in her throat when the sword was pulled back and blood gushed out from the wound. She barely had time to see the manslayer before dark spots danced in front of her eyes. She fell on her knees and retched. 


	3. Vanishing

Thanks you all for the reviews! If you are asking yourself exactly where this story is taking place in the Kenshin world, it is not long before the story with Tomoe, meening around ten years before the tv series. For those who asked, yes, the series is as good as the manga.  
  
On to the fic!  
  
Part 2 : Vanishing  
  
She stayed on her knees, panting, for quite a long moment before she felt someone helping her up. Her limbs were too heavy to stand alone, without help. She leaned on the hard chest and groaned when her stomach seemed to roll over itself. She looked down and froze when she she saw the arm covered by a dark blue kimono holding her at the waist. She gulped and closed her eyes. "Are you going to kill me?" she whispered in a steady voice, refusing to let show her fear.  
  
It took a while, but the young man finally answered her. "No."  
  
His voice sent shivers up Willow's spine. There was no emotions what so ever in his voice. It was dull, devoid of any feelings. She nodded slowly and let herself be guided through the dark streets of Kyoto. She held on tightly to his arm, afraid that she'd fall if she let go his support. She looked into his eyes in search of. anything, any little clue that this man could feel anything else than hatred or desinterest. Grey eyes cold as ice was the only thing her gaze encountered. If he had emotions, they were buried deep down inside him, invisible to even himself.  
  
A bloody rain drop fell on her hand. Surprised, she touched her cheek with the tip of her fingers. They came bloodied a little. The blood of the drunk man. Her stomach lurched. "I think I'm going to be sick again," she said quickly, stopping the manslayer with a gentle hand. She fell on her knees, unable to support her own weight any longer. She dry heaved for a minute or two, while the red haired man waited patiently for her sickness to pass.  
  
Willow closed her eyes when she felt the strong arms lift her up again. "I'm not feeling too well," she whispered. And then went limp.  
  
* * *  
  
-Willow's POV-  
  
Where am I?  
  
I can feel myself moving but my limbs aren't working. Someone is holding me. There is no other way. And I can feel his arms. My head is pounding. The world is still spinning around me. But I have to see for myself. Was it all just a dream? Am I still in Sunnydale? Is it Xander or Giles the person holding me? Spike maybe? Did we win? Is Dawn alive? Is the world still there?  
  
The sight greeting me wasn't the one I was expecting.  
  
It was not a dream. I am no longer in Sunnydale. I don't know if Dawn is alive or if we won the battle against Glory. And it's neither Giles, nor Xander, nor Spike who is holding me. None of them had long red hair. And none of them holds a katana.  
  
It's official. Me, Willow Ann Rosenberg, 18 years old, currently living in Sunnydale, California in the 21st century, is stuck in the past, probably in an alternate universe. I'm in Kyoto, Japan, in the middle of the 19th century, currently being very sick, cold, completly wet from the heavy pouring rain and being held by a manslayer who killed someone in front of my very eyes not an hour ago.  
  
I hate this week.  
  
"I see you finally woke up."  
  
I shrieked and I would have fell on the ground if the man didn't have good reflexes. "Goddess! Don't scare me like that again!"  
  
I'm not sure if I'm hallucinating or not. I would bet I saw his lips twitching, as if he was trying hard not to smile. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. Are you feeling better? Can you walk on your own? You're not very heavy, but my arms are starting to tire."  
  
I groaned. "No, I'm not feeling better. The world is still moving too fast right now. But I'll try to walk on my own if you let me lean a bit on you. I owe you for saving my life from that drunk man and, of course, for not killing me."  
  
I gently touched the ground and sighed. I held is arm as strongly as I could without hurting him. He may be a murderer, but I owe him my life. So he couldn't be that bad. I looked around me as we walked through the dark and empty streets. "Where are we going?"  
  
"I'm bringing you to the inn where I live. The land lady will let you stay for the night." He pointed in front of him. There was some kind of big house in front of us and there was light inside.  
  
"This is where you live?" He nodded. "Not bad. for an assassin. I would have thought you lived in a cave or something like that." I hid a smile when I saw some light entering his eyes at my comment. At least, I knew that I hadn't losen my touch in trying to lighten the mood at bad times. "What do I call you?"  
  
"People knows me as Hitokiri Battousai. But you shouldn't call me that in public."  
  
"I understand. You might get killed, right?"  
  
He didn't answer me. We entered the inn and were imediatly greeted by a woman. "Landlady, a room for the stray cat."  
  
"We don't have any rooms left. You brought her here. She can share your room for the night. Surely you won't mind."  
  
I followed him up the stairs and to his room. "She didn't mean what I thought she did, right?" I asked timidely.  
  
"She can say whatever she likes. You can sleep there. I always sleep by the window. Good night."  
  
I don't know how long I stayed awake, but long enough to see the sky become graduatly brighter. When I was sure the sun would rise soon, I quietly walked to the door and I cast one last look at the manslayer. He was sleeping peacefully by the window. It was then that I saw how young he really was : 15, maybe 16. Physically only. His mind was much more mature. What I mistaken for a man was actually a boy who had already seen too much. a bit like my own. You couldn't stay blind if you wanted to live on the Hellmouth.  
  
"Thank you," I whispered. And I left the inn.  
  
* * *  
  
-normal POV-  
  
When Hitokiri Battousai woke up in the morning, the sheet was neatly folded and there was absolutely no traces of the woman he'd taken to his room the previous night, but the slight smell of green apple lingering in the air. 


	4. Lost Little Lamb

Part 3 : Lost Little Lamb  
  
Willow spent the better part of the morning just wandering around Kyoto, getting to know where everything was and mostly walking because she had nothing else to do. She kept getting weird glances from the passers by. Her clothes weren't something they saw very often. [And they won't for at least another century,] Willow thought dryly.  
  
At noon, the redhead realized her lack of money was becoming a problem. Her stomach was growling : she was positively starving. She'd even eat raw fish if it was the only food she could get. [Goddess, forgive me.] She passed by a merchant and while he was distracted by a client, she grabbed some vegetables and quickly walked away.  
  
[Maybe I should have stayed at the inn. No, Will, forget it! Maybe he let you stay alive because he was too tired to kill you that same night. You could have been dead by now if you had stayed with Hitokiri Battousai. He is *not* a sweet, very mature boy. He is a killer. Somehow, I don't think his name brings love and joy is men's heart.] She sighed and closed her eyes.  
  
[How am I going to get out of this one? I can't keep stealing from merchants forever and I don't think it's a good idea to sleep in the streets. Surely, the Scoobies are looking for a way to get me back in my time. I just want to go home.]  
  
All day long, she wandered around the city, not really knowing where she was going. [If only I had my laptop with me. Then maybe I could find a way home.] She hugged herself tightly.  
  
Willow was finally aware of her surrounding when the cold wind settled in. The sun had set an hour ago and it was getting colder and colder. She looked around her for a place to hide for the night. "Great. Totally wonderful."  
  
Footsteps could be heard coming her way. The moonlight showed her three men walking quickly in her direction. The darkness suddenly seemed to disappear and she could clearly see their faces. "Oh shit!" It was the three drunk men that ran away from the manslayer the night before. Not thinking it twice, Willow ran, the men hot on her trail.  
  
"Oh God! Oh God! I don't want to die! Where is a manslayer when you need one?" Her legs were tiring fast and she had trouble breathing. [I can't hold on much longer.] She shot a quick look behind her. Only two men ran. [Where's the last one?]  
  
She got her answer quick enough. Something slammed her into the nearby wall. She grunted when her head hit it hard. Dizzy, she tried to focus on the angry man in front of her. Her eyes widened when she saw him unsheath his wakisashi (A/N: short sword). He grinned evilly. "You're going to get it, bitch!"  
  
Years of fighting the supernatural finally paid off. She was able to dodge him easilly. He slammed into the wall and growled when he saw she had escaped the deadly blade. She put her hand in front of her. "Look, I didn't kill your friend, so why don't you just try and kill the one who did?"  
  
He sneered. "He's next. Don't worry. You're just practice."  
  
Something in Willow snapped at that comment. Her eyes hardened and the man froze, suddenly less confidant. When the redhead didn't move, he shrugged it adn tried to plunge the wakisashi in her heart.  
  
He never went that far. He was slammed back in the wall by an unseen force and the weapon flew out of his hand. directly into the redhead's one. She caught it easily and looked at him. "Now, who's got the power?"  
  
"You think you know how to use it? You're just a scared little girl. I can still kill you even if I don't have the blade."  
  
"Bored now." She took the blade by two fingers and threw the short sword at the man. He fell back, crying in pain. She walked slowly to him and crouched down before the sprawled man. "I'm curious. How does it feel to have that thing stuck in your guts?" She grabbed the handle and pulled on it roughly. The man grunted. Blood was slowly trickling down his mouth. "It's curious how so many small things like a wakisashi can do." She winked at him mockingly while he suffered from slow death. "Don't worry. Soon enough, the pain will go away and you'll be able to rest. eternally." She stood up and stepped back.  
  
When the man finally died, no blood left in his veins, Willow finally snapped out of it. She looked down at her bloody hand holding a bloody short sword. "Oh God! What did I do?" she whispered. [You saved your own ass, you dumbass,] her inner voice said. She looked up to see the two men left walking to her. "Uh oh! Time to make a run for it." She ran.  
  
Willow could hear the men running loudly behind her. She clutched the wakisashi tighter. Hope swept her up when she heard a fight not too far away from her. [Let it be Him.]  
  
But it wasn't Him. Four men in light blue kimono were fighting a couple of bandits. [They're part of the same group as those Hitokiri Battousai killed yesterday.] One of them was very tall and had black hair pulled into a high ponytail. Some bang were falling on his face covering bits of his cold yellow eyes. He was definitly the chief of this unit.  
  
She startled when she heard the two drunk men approaching at high speed. She squealed and ran to the black haired man. Well, almost running. Her legs couldn't work anymore. "Help! There's two men trying to kill me!"  
  
She stopped dead in her tracks when the chief pulled is sword and pointed it at her throat. "Put down your weapon."  
  
"There! The Shisengumi!" The two men pursuing her ran to the men in blue, Shisengumi they had called them. "The girl, she killed one of our friend!"  
  
Willow cried in surprise when the black haired man grabbed her wrist and squeeze, forcing her to drop the wakisashi. He looked at her bloody hand and sneered at her. "I was only defending myself!" she yelled back. "They tried to rape me!"  
  
"The other guy tried to do that and your friend killed him!"  
  
"What friend?" One of the Shisengumi asked.  
  
"He had red hair and grey eyes with gold flecks in them."  
  
The black haired man turned toward her. "A friend of the Battousai? That could be valuable to our cause. She'll serve of example. Execute her tomorrow on the public place."  
  
Willow's eyes widened. "What?! The guy saved my virtue last night and he's suddenly my friend? Hey! Let go of me!" The Shisengumi grabbed her arms and pulled her toward their base, still kicking and screaming her head off.  
  
In the shadows of a house stood a young man with red hair and cold eyes. "Trouble follows that girl," he muttered. He walked toward Katsura's house, one of the leaders of the Ishin Shishi, the organization he worked for, the Imperialists. "Time to report the situation." 


End file.
